


to wait for the water to rise

by citrina



Series: i never wanted anybody else [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Animals, Bakoda - Freeform, Bakoda Fleet Week, Hunting, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Prompt: Love Languages/With Animals, Sokka is a baby lol, Unrequited Love, idk if this counts as angst bc hes very mature about it, this is PINING CENTRAL FOLKS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25612699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrina/pseuds/citrina
Summary: Hakoda and Bato go hunting, and they come across a surprise. Bato pines furiously.
Relationships: Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Hakoda/Kya (Avatar)
Series: i never wanted anybody else [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852534
Comments: 12
Kudos: 100
Collections: Bakoda Fleet Week 2020





	to wait for the water to rise

**Author's Note:**

> Bakoda Fleet Week Day 4: Love Languages / With Animals
> 
> Happy day 4! Let's just say... the pining is strong with this one. I don't know if I really fulfilled the prompt but oh well. This is not a very happy fic but it's one that I felt was more real and one that needed to be in this series, considering that apparently I've forced poor Bato to be in love w Hakoda since he was 14 and not get together until after the war which is just... yeah that's a heck of a lot of pining time. It is set when Sokka is a baby (so like they are in their mid/late twenties i guess) so Hakoda is married to Kya and Katara does not yet exist. Hakoda would TOTALLY be one of those parents who tells you everything about their kid. EVERYTHING. The title is from the song "Wait for the Water" by the Ballroom Thieves (a fantastic pining song for all, but especially here since they are from the SWT!)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or any official affiliated content. If I did, then Zhao never would've had those hideous sideburns.

The sun is setting over the South Pole, springtime warmth starting to disappear. Bato and Hakoda, heading out on a nighttime hunting mission, trek through the silent tundra. The only sound is the crunch of snow beneath their boots coupled with their heavy breathing. Behind them winks the firelight of the village. Ahead of them, the vast expanse of white.

Bato steps in the holes that Hakoda’s footprints, ahead of him, create in the snow. His usually talkative friend seems too exhausted right now to say much. The long nights with a new baby must be getting to him, then. Bato watches the arch of his back, the way Hakoda’s coat fits snug against it. The way his beads lie against his cheekbone, and his boomerang rests in his hand. This type of watching is harmless, as meaningless and constant as the tides. Hakoda is married and has a kid, and watching without acting is no great sin.

This, at least, is what Bato tells himself.

Hakoda stops, swiveling suddenly and glancing in either direction. Bato waits. His friend’s always had a sharper eye than he does.

“There,” Hakoda whispers, pointing southwest. Across the infinite plane of snow, Bato makes out a pale lump in the distance. A polar bear dog.

“I am not hunting a polar bear dog, Hakoda,” Bato whispers back. That’s suicide for only two men, and anyway the meat is pretty tough and flavorless.

“We’re not gonna attack the polar bear dog,” Hakoda says. “We’re gonna follow it. They always know where the tiger-seal breathing holes are.”

Bato has to grin at his friend’s stroke of brilliance. Hakoda comes up with the best plans.

They follow the polar bear dog from a safe distance. It seems to be heading somewhere, on a mission. Bato wonders where; they’re nowhere near the coast, where the tiger-seals usually gather. 

“Wait, it’s stopping,” Hakoda whispers. The polar bear dog lifts its head, looking around for danger, and when it senses none it snuffles at the ground. There’s a low lump of snow, like a hill or a den, hardly a blip in the monochrome landscape.

A den!

The polar bear dog barks, once, soft and deep. Three smaller forms emerge from the lump. Puppies.

“I bet if you use your boomerang and I use the net, we can snag one if it gets separated,” Bato whispers. Polar bear dog puppies are hard to catch, but their furs are warm and downy, perfect for clothing, and their meat is tender.

“No, wait,” Hakoda says. “I don’t think we should hunt them.”

“Why not? We can do it,” Bato argues. They’ve certainly beat worse odds than this.

“I just… don’t think we should,” Hakoda repeats, staring at the puppies as they roll around in the snow play-fighting. Bato opens his mouth to argue again, but stops when he sees Hakoda’s expression. He realizes, suddenly, what this is about.

“You don’t want to hunt the babies because you’re thinking of Sokka,” Bato states. Hakoda’s brow furrows. 

“No,” he argues, but it’s weak, and Bato knows Hakoda’s mind. 

Sokka was born only two months ago, in the middle of the night after a long and painful labor on Kya’s part. The child is clearly Hakoda’s pride and joy. Hakoda spends most of his time caring for his family while still keeping up on his warrior duties, and if he’s not with Sokka then he’s telling everybody else about him. Fatherhood suits Hakoda, even if it means it’s apparently softened him against hunting baby animals.

“Okay,” Bato says easily. “We don’t have to hunt them, then.” Admittedly, the puppies are pretty cute.

“Are you sure?” Hakoda tears his gaze away from the puppies to look at Bato with wide eyes. “It’s a stupid move, to give up a hunt like this.”

“We’ll move on the tiger-seals,” Bato says. “And it’s spring. There will be plenty to eat in the coming months.”

Logically, Bato knows it is a stupid move. The meat’s right there, and with all three pups and the mother occupied, it wouldn’t be so difficult to just snag one. But he sees the look in Hakoda’s eye, and he’s always been willing to do just about anything Hakoda says.

So they turn around, the sun dipping below the horizon.

.oOo.

They arrive back at the village in the pitch-black night, carrying the tiger-seal’s body between them. It’s an adult, slow and unlucky enough to get snagged in one of Hakoda’s traps, and very heavy. Its slippery-wet fur and thick blubber make it a pain to carry, and Bato thinks again to the polar bear dog pups, small and soft and light.

What a pain it is, to be in love.

“Well, I’m off to bed,” Hakoda says, setting down his half of the tiger-seal and stretching. “Do you think you can bring this back to Ashuna’s on your own? It’s on your way.”

“And have her turn it into her terrible jerky?” Bato sighs. “I don’t know how you eat that stuff, it’s tough enough to break your teeth.”

But it’s as good as an agreement, so Hakoda nods and lopes off to the igloo he shares with Kya, Sokka, and Kya’s mother. Bato hefts the tiger-seal up and drags it alone to Auntie Ashuna’s hut. The old woman is somehow still awake, sitting in a hammock in front of her hut and darning a pair of socks. She looks up as Bato approaches.

“Ah, more tiger-seal?” Auntie Ashuna smiles, taking in Bato’s tired form. “You and Hakoda have surely been busy at those breathing holes.” She gets up and opens the door of her hut.

Bato doesn’t ask how she knows that Hakoda had been with him, or the implications of it. He brings the tiger-seal inside, setting it on the table, and digs around in his pocket for some money.

“Here,” he says, handing Ashuna the fee for making the jerky in advance. He should probably let Hakoda pay his own half, since the jerky will go to his family too, but Bato pays the full price. He’ll let this one slide. Hakoda’s been so tired, lately, what with the baby.

“Thank you,” Ashuna takes the money. “Now, a young man like you needs his rest. Why aren’t you in bed at this hour, but off hunting?”

“I’m off to sleep now, Auntie,” Bato says. He hadn’t really wanted to go on the hunt at all, tonight, but Hakoda had. He’d needed to be out of the house for a while, overwhelmed by the baby and warrior’s duties, and Bato could never really refuse him anything.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Ashuna observes kindly, but she lets Bato go. He makes his way to his own igloo, the same small one he used to share with his mother but which now is his alone, ever since his mother passed away. It used to be just down the road from Hakoda’s family’s, but Hakoda moved to a larger igloo when he got married.

Bato is alone now. He misses the easy company Hakoda brings with him, rarer and rarer these days now that Hakoda has a family. He has Kya and Sokka now to love him, and Bato has no one but Hakoda anymore. He’d never had many other friends when they were children, always too caught up in Hakoda to care about anybody else. Hakoda had been the popular one, a born leader who’d commanded respect from his peers even as a child. He still does; there are rumors that when the ancient Chief Palluk steps down, their village counsel will elect Hakoda. 

It would be easy, Bato knows, to resent Kya. But he’s known her nearly as long as he’s known Hakoda, growing up in the village together. There’d always been that spark of attraction between her and Hakoda, one that Bato had noticed young. She’s kind and clever and endlessly patient, traits that make her perfect to deal with her brilliant, scatterbrained husband. It is obvious that she makes Hakoda happy. And in regards to Sokka; well, Bato will eternally be awkward with children, but he does his best to treat the boy as he would any other. Jealousy is not in Bato’s blood, he thinks. He’s always been hopeful but never expectant, and that has saved him from anger. If Hakoda is happy, then Bato will not argue.

And anyway, friendship will have to be enough, and Bato knows this. He knows it well in every smile he manages to bring to Hakoda’s face, every shared hunt and pulled prank (though, in recent years, their mischievous streak has lost much of its steam). It’s easier, because he knows that Hakoda does not love him the way he loves Hakoda. It’s easier to watch from afar, to stand by his side, but to never lay down a finger. It’s easier to give up a hunt and to drag it back alone than it is to impress upon a friend more than can be reciprocated.

This is how he loves Hakoda: by letting him love on his own.

**Author's Note:**

> How did I do? Let me know in the comments! Visit me on tumblr at chief-yue.tumblr.com.


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